The eleventh hour: Shanghai's disappearing neighbourhoods

My Photo scholarship 2010 entry

China | Thursday, September 9, 2010 | 5 photos

With the World Expo on until October 31st and China’s economy booming, Shanghai is in flux. The most palpable evidence of this is the incredible rate at which the city’s older buildings are getting demolished and replaced by skyscrapers. The area I photographed is surrounded by construction sites, residential high-risers and highways. Hanging red banners encourage residents to cooperate with the “redevelopment”. The one in the first photo reads, “demolish outdated houses; move into new residences; improve your quality of life.”

Meanwhile, many people in these communities – especially the older ones, who have spent their entire lives there – are reluctant to leave. The old man posing on his outdoor napping mat, by his home of 50 years, told me that everyone would be relocated to government-subsidised apartments very far away. “I can’t do anything about it,” he said, “but I know these last bits of old Shanghai won’t exist much longer.” To be sure I understood, he pointed to a banner: “everyone must work together, to share in building a new homeland.”

For me, photography is about creatively chronicling moments and stories before they disappear. I’ve increasingly sought out underdocumented subjects since I got my digital SLR last year (before, my “serious” photos were on black/white film). I write, but I’m also excited by how much photos can capture: unexpected colour correspondence in “Red, Blue, Yellow,” or content irony, in the photo with the popular Chinese card game whose name is uncomfortably relevant to the players’ lives. I’m keen to take my photography to the next level. I’m widely travelled, I love challenges and exploring new cultures. Travel photography has always been a dream career. I would relish a week in Bhutan and the chance to learn as much as I can!